Malaunay, the Normandy town at the forefront of sobriety

In a decade, the town of Malaunay, in Seine-Maritime, has become a model of sobriety. Here, twelve public buildings and 1,700 square meters roofs have been equipped with solar panels, in particular the church and its two schools. “The idea is simply to save money, to lower the bill in euros for the municipality”, explains Guillaume Coutey, the mayor (PS) of Malaunay. The roofs cover approximately 30% of the city’s electricity consumption.

The electricity produced powers the gymnasium and the swimming pool. The city also has three biomass boilers. In total, 3 million euros have been saved since 2006. In an approach of sobriety, the municipality has also tracked its unnecessary expenses. She thus transferred the classes from one kindergarten to another, and sold it to a collective, which founded a participatory housing project there. With the money, the city finances in particular an aid to obtain subsidies intended for the energy renovations. Twenty residents have already benefited from the service. The next project is the installation of tanks, in order to recover rainwater.